For a recent project, we were looking for an issue tracker. Our biggest criteria was something that was free – we weren’t planning on doing anything complicated, and so available issue trackers were essentially equal in our eyes. We ended up going with Unfuddle, but it wasn’t until after signing up that we discovered its biggest strength: an API.

There are other issue trackers with an API, but this one seemed reasonable enough so we used it. The big get for us in building a web-based app, is that it lowers the barrier for reporting bugs. We set up our development server to include a bug-reporting button that collected a little report that then sent it to our server, which uses the Unfuddle API to add a ticket. It also records and submits a little information about the user’s browser, current session, etc. that might help in debugging their problem.

Not the most complicated or profound system in the world, but it does put user-reported (and tester-reported) bugs in the same place we check our to-dos and other issues. No checking a support email account we remember once a month. Just puts bugs right were we’re looking anyway. I hope to share a little bit of the backend code soon!